2011 New Year’s Resolution: Be Cancer~Free

 

 

 

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.  ~Friedrich Nietzche

Some may question why I am sharing this. Others may ask why I waited so long to do so. Sharing personal information doesn’t come easily to me, even though I authored a very personal book. I’m still a Scorpio. So, after a couple a friends asked about my Facebook post regarding a pre-op physical, I decided to write this blog. I didn’t think about the slogan on the blog banner until now. Really.

Dr. Reuven Rosen said to me a few months ago, ‘please listen to every word that I will say to you. You have been diagnosed with ‘treatable-Stage 1 Prostate Cancer.’ At his recommendation Louisa and I met with his partner, Dr. Jeremy Weiss, to discuss the possibility of surgery. A few days later, after running in some wet spring snow, I called Dr. Weiss and asked if I could wait until after I’ve enjoyed running in the summer and fall weather if I were to choose to have surgery. He was okay with that, which brings us to this place in time.  If I have to miss a few days of running, January seems like a good time to do that. 

 On Tuesday, January 4, 2011, I will undergo radical prostectomy surgery, to be conducted by Dr. Jeremy Weiss at Rose Medical Center. He says that I’ll be out of the loop for a few days, no driving for 2 weeks and then before the end of January I’ll be back to doing as much as I want to do. On top of that I have learned that COFFEE is included in the pre-op clear liquids I am instructed to drink on Sunday and Monday.

I welcome your prayers, white light, positive thoughts and humor. I ask that you pray for Louisa, our family and friends. They are always there to support me. Please include Dr. Weiss, as well as the anesthesiologist, technicians, nurses and other doctors who will be a part of the team that removes the cancer from my body.

I must be a late bloomer. I celebrated my 68th birthday recently and this will be my first surgery. Although I’ll be fine with it if it is my only surgery, I embrace this opportunity to learn more about myself. Actually, if you don’t count the overnight hospital visit after I rolled my Fiat Spider in Williamsburg in ’69 or the 2 nights after I was broadsided by an Italian Pantera at Hampton’s Grandview  in 1980, this is only my third hospital stay (due to illness). That doesn’t include my birth, which I consider my mother’s first hospital overnight visit.

God surrounds me with people who care about me and express it, just as they allow me to express my concern, affection and love for them. I thank Him for that. I know that I am blessed beyond measure.

Thank you to my friends/colleagues at INNOVATIVE Real Estate Group for their support; especially to Edye & Renee who will be covering my business while I enjoy the cuisine offered at Rose Medical Center.

My friend David Scoggins gave me a copy of “”HUMANIZING Prostate Cancer” by Roger E. Schultz, M.D. and Alex W. Oliver, Patient.* I suggest that you read it and/or give it to someone you care about. (*BRANDYLANEPUBLISHERS, INC.)

How did this come about? Glad you asked. On January 2, 2010 I experienced what Dr. Katherin Compton described as a TIA. A blood draw was a part of her physical exam and the results showed a significant jump in my PSA. So off to Dr. Rosen I would go, with a subsequent biopsy that discovered the Stage 1 prostate cancer.

To resolve the TIA issue I also saw a neurologist, had an MRI, an MRA, an EEG, an EKG, and more blood work. The conclusion was that the most likely cause was low blood sugar at that particular moment. There have been so incidences of anything resembling a TIA since January 2, 2010.  We now consider it a blessing because it revealed the jump in the PSA earlier than I would have otherwise learned, in late April or early May after my annual physical exam.

What’s next? Along with my daughter Kelly and my youngest son Chris, I will be running the Valentine 5k in Washington Park on Sunday, February 13th. You’re welcome to join us.

Happy trails,

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